DISCOVERED IN WORCESTERSHIRE. 89 



by many writers, is described as a Roman camp, and were evidently 

 constructed for interment by cremation, when the body was burnt ; 

 but whether there was formerly a tumulus, or barrow, over them it 

 is now impossible to ascertain. Probably, however, such was the case, 

 (if the coarse articles were ancient British), as persons of rank were 

 generally so buried by the ancient Britons ; but the tumuli have 

 been levelled for agricultural purposes, throughout many parts of 

 the kingdom. Some of the urns and pans in question, are of 

 ironstone clay, very coarsely formed, badly tempered, (the gritty 

 particles not sifted therefrom), and slightly burnt, or probably only 

 dried in the sun ; not turned at the lathe, but only at the wheel, 

 and therefore most probably belonged to the ancient British era : 

 whilst others, which came out of the same cist are of red clay, were 

 turned at the lathe, as well as the wheel ; were well tempered, 

 sifted, and thoroughly burnt, and consequently belonged to the 

 Romans, or Romanized British, but most probably to the latter ; for 

 although such vessels are made after the fashion of the Romans, 

 yet most of them correspond in shape with those of the ancient 

 British. There is one singularity attending the cist in question, 

 namely, if the coarse articles therein were ancient British, (and 

 which they most probably were), the Romans, or Romanized Brit- 

 ons continued to bury in the same cist ; and, therefore, we may in- 

 fer that the Romans located themselves at an ancient British sta- 

 tion at Kempsey, Many of the other cists in that locality in all 

 probability were purely Roman. A Roman coin was also found by 

 one of the workmen at the gravel-bed, previously alluded to, at 

 Kempsey. 



The Rev. E. Rudd, of Kempsey, has in his possession a fragment 

 of a thick slab stone, one yard long and half a yard wide, with a 

 Latin inscription thereon, in honour of Constantine, and which was 

 found in the Roman camp alluded to at Kempsey, in the year 

 1818. The following is the inscription: — 



VAL C°NST 



ANTING 



P F I N 



V I C T O 



A V G 



Valerio Constantino Pio Felici Invicto August©.* 



The vallum of the above camp may now be easily traced ; but 

 being a mound of gravel, it has been much levelled in many places. 



* To Valerius Constantinus, the pious, happy, invincible Augustus. 



